Dr. George Love’s Sanitarium, circa 1910. Neg. #N017890

Callahan sold the land to Franklin White in 1862, just a few months after the Battle of Pea Ridge. When White died the land went to auction and was purchased by Reuben Wallace in 1871. Court records of the sale don’t mention any buildings on the land, and we assume that Callahan’s building burned during the Civil War, as did so many other buildings in this area.

In 1882 Wallace had the land platted and a year later started selling lots. The land where Callahan’s once stood was sold in 1885 to Mrs. M.A. Githens. We assume at that time the land included the building then known as the Summit House Hotel. The deed doesn’t mention any buildings, but since the price was more than $2,000 above what unimproved lots had been selling for, it’s likely that the building was already on the land, probably built by Wallace himself.

The Githens were the first to operate the Summit House Hotel, an all-brick building. Then, between 1891 and 1903, the property changed hands several times. From 1903 to 1908 the building was in the hands of Mrs. Willie Pennington, wife of Doctor J.C. Pennington, who, we deduce, used the building as a “sanitarium,” an early version of a hospital.

In 1909 the property was sold to Dr. George M. Love. Love and his wife Alice had moved to Rogers in 1909, and he had a downtown office for a time.

When they bought the building they lived in part of it and opened the rest as Love Sanitarium, a small private hospital. Since Love wasn’t a surgeon, other doctors performed the operations there. The first floor included Dr.
Love’s office (east side) and a recuperation ward (west side), while the second floor was for the operating room (east side) and another recuperation ward (west side). The 1918-19 Rogers city directory bore an ad for the sanitarium and called it “a home-like place for the sick, convalescent, obstetrical, and surgical.”

Although Dr. Love continued to practice in Rogers, the Spruce Street property was sold in 1934 to George and Lula Vroom. They listed the business in the 1939 Rogers telephone directory as the Rogers Sanitarium.

The Vrooms were responsible for installing a small, rope-operated elevator in the back of the building to move patients and equipment between floors.

The building was again sold in 1943, this time to Dorothy and L.D. Pettit.

They changed the name to Rogers Hospital, remodeled the building, and added some rooms on the back side to bring the patient bed-count to twelve. Among the doctors who performed operations during the Pettit years were Drs. Moore and Jennings, well known Rogers physicians. Dr. Jennings is quoted as saying, after working there following his return from WWII, “The place was clean, the patients received good care, but the operating room was more obsolete than the one I used almost on the front lines in combat.”

The Pettits sold the land and building in 1947 to J.O. and Inez Wilmoth, who reorganized the place as the Wilmoth Nursing Home. They first added a kitchen and dining room on the back, and, due to new nursing-home rules in 1954, widened all the doorways, replaced the old stairway with a new one (still in use today), removed the elevator, and added a sprinkler system and steam-heating system. The nursing home had a 30-year history. For three years (1977-1980) the Pettits leased the building and it was home to the Benton County Adult Development Center.

In 1980 the Wilmoth heirs entered a lease-purchase agreement with the Office of Human Concerns, Inc. (OHC), a non-profit organization “to promote the well being of the citizens of Benton, Carroll, and Madison Counties.” OHC continues to be officed at 506 East Spruce Street today ( http://www.eohc.org/ ).

Thanks to J. Dickson Black’s “History of OHC Headquarters Building,” an undated manuscript in the RHM research library, for contributing greatly to this article.